Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank Governing
Council member Luc Coene said the timing of the ECB’s bond-purchase program is out of its control, as aid requests need to
be first “approved by a lot” of people.

“It’s not depending on us how fast we will react,” Coene
told reporters in Luxembourg late today when asked how quickly
the ECB would intervene in government bond markets. “It will
depend on all the other instances that have to approve these
things and then we will intervene.”

ECB policy makers agreed to an unlimited bond-purchase
program to regain control of interest rates in the euro area and
fight speculation of a currency breakup. This would work in
tandem with the region’s rescue fund, and it is now up to the
governments in Spain and Italy to trigger ECB bond purchases by
requesting aid from the fund and signing up to conditions.

“Conditionality is essential,” Coene said. “We cannot
unclog the monetary transmission mechanism if these fundamental
structural imbalances are not addressed.”

Coene said it’s “foreseen right now” that all other euro-area members will have to agree to a rescue fund aid request. So
far Spain and Italy have not asked for help.

The ECB’s program, called Outright Monetary Transactions,
will target government bonds with maturities of one to three
years, including longer-dated debt that has a residual maturity
of that length.

Coene said the Governing Council will decide on how to
activate, run and suspend any bond buying. The International
Monetary Fund will be asked to help design and monitor country-specific plans.

Since the ECB and the national central banks aren’t in
charge of structural or fiscal policies in euro-area countries,
they can “neither solve nor be held responsible for problems in
this domain,” Coene said.

At the same time, “ we will also remain attentive to
economic and institutional developments in the euro zone and we
won’t hesitate to share our reflections,” he said.